There are three types of funds available for investors interested in investing in cryptocurrency funds: Exchange-traded Funds, Private Investment Funds, and Hedge Funds. In this section we look at Exchange Traded Funds, where CoinShares dominates the market.

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Exchange Traded Products

Exchange traded products are securities that are bought and sold on an established exchange. Exchange traded products can be either Exchange traded Funds (ETFs) or Exchange traded Notes (ETNs). ETFs are backed by the securities they hold (think of them like a mutual fund, which is just a structure to hold individual assets like stocks or currencies) while ETNs are notes issued by a company that uses the money raised to buy securities, in this case cryptocurrencies.

ETNs have an additional layer of risk over ETFs because they are essentially loans to the issuer. And issuers running into trouble is not unprecedented: XBT Provider, the original issuer of cryptocurrency ETNs, had financial trouble, but luckily was bought up by Global Advisors and both firms were rebranded as CoinShares.

Lack of US Access

As of May 2019 there are no Exchange traded crypto focused products available in the United States. In August of 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected nine bitcoin ETF proposals from large, firms like ProShares, Direxion, and others. The stated reason was because the SEC was unconvinced that the exchanges could prevent fraud or manipulative acts.

As recently as May 20th of 2019 the SEC rejected the application of the VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin ETF. With this rejection, it seems unlikely there will be an SEC approved ETF available to U.S. investors anytime in 2019. Even more discouraging, the VanEck/SolidX proposal, in an attempt to reassure the SEC, set a minimum share price of $200,000 to discourage retail investors and attract more institutional funds. Unaccredited investors may have an even longer wait for an SEC-approved fund.

Global Crypto - Exchange Access Outside North America

U.S. citizens can invest in Exchange traded Products listed in non-U.S. exchanges. CoinShares lists their products on the Swedish exchange which can be accessed through a broker connected to Nasdaq Stockholm or the Nordic Growth Market. For experienced investors comfortable using an online broker and accessing foreign exchanges Interactive Brokers offers an option to allow access to invest.

We offer a list of funds including CoinShares that provide access to this asset type.